I've had a bias in this direction for quite a while. When learning about neurodegenerative diseases back in college over a decade ago my conclusion at the time was that something metabolic was going on. Nothing else made sense to me as an explanation for how symptoms and pathology for a disease could show up after 60ish years. At that time I couldn't figure out how to make the link though, so it was a leap.
I was in a lab meeting maybe 4 years ago or so and my PI had just come back from a conference on Alzheimer's. He reported back that groups had started investigating the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the disease and had been able to find that lineages with variants in genes related to mitochondria and energy homoeostasis were far more likely to have or develop Alzheimer's. I haven't kept an eye on progress in that line of research, but it is in line with what is being reported/speculated here.
Finally, a couple of years ago I ran into the father of someone I went to middle school with and I learned that he was a biochemist. Somehow the conversation wound around to the challenge of understanding neurodegenerative diseases. I asked him for his take on a disease that only presents after 60ish years. His immediate answer was DNA damage during mitosis. But neuron's don't divide. And then it hit me. There IS something that is still dividing inside the neurons! It is the mitochondria! The other possibility is the astrocytes, the microglia, or some other mitotic cell population in the brain, but the mitochondria really stand out as fitting both the fact the neurons don't divide and the instinct from a veteran biochemist that something that takes so long to appear must be related to DNA damage.
Like the article says: "“It’s too soon to make any firm conclusions about a lot of this stuff, but it sure looks like the mitochondria are disrupted in many kids with autism,” Frye says. “And environmental exposures, especially early on, may be programming the mitochondria to have different types of respiratory physiology.”"
You might find this of interest too from eleven years ago:
https://drhyman.com/blog/2010/12/09/breakthrough-discovery-o...
"Let’s look more closely at what this new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association tells us about mitochondrial dysfunction and how this may lead us to new methods of treatment—methods similar to the ones I used to help reverse Jackson’s autism. ...
This study forces the question: How do children acquire energy deficits that affect their whole system, not just the brain?
The causes of mitochondrial dysfunction are well known, specifically as it relates to metabolism and the brain, and I have documented them in my books UtraMetabolism and The UltraMind Solution. They include environmental toxins(iv)—mercury, lead and persistent organic pollutants(v)—latent infections, gluten and allergens (which trigger inflammation) sugar and processed foods,(vi) a nutrient-depleted diet,(vii) and nutritional deficiencies.(viii) These are all potentially treatable and reversible causes of mitochondrial dysfunction that have been clearly documented.
I found all these problems in Jackson, and over a period of 2 years we slowly unraveled and treated the underlying causes of his energy loss which included gut inflammation, mercury, and nutrient deficiencies. Over time, the tests for his mitochondrial function and oxidative stress (as well as levels of inflammation and nutrient status) all normalized. When they became normal, so did Jackson. He went from full-blown regressive autism to a normal, bright beautiful 6-year-old boy.
This is just one story, but if autism can be reversed in one child, if there is any possibility of effective treatments or a potential cure, it forces us to ask critical questions: How did this happen? Can it happen in other children? What were the biological patterns found and how were they treated?"
And if it applies to young brains, why would it not apply to older brains?
My pet theory on autism is the Back to Sleep campaign that began in the 90s. (1) Babies don’t like back sleeping. It disrupts their sleep. Sleep is important in brain development. Constantly disrupted sleep means a higher percentage of brain development issues.
I can back up my pet theory with studies. Bottom line is, stomach sleeping with good air circulation (2) reduces SIDS at similar rates to back sleeping without the side effect of autism.
Care to cite a study or data? I know sleep researches studying this issue at UCLA and elsewhere and would love to share it with them.
We were looking for natural experiments. Ideally somewhere that babies are still stomach slept. Much like Israel and peanut snacks in the study of peanut allergies, it’s hard to change a protective paradigm without a natural experiment.
The WaPo article is very illuminating re: how Chinese babies were raised. As it was published almost 30 years ago, those babies are now established Chinese adults. Makes you wonder how much they're shaped by how they were reared.
I’m referring to data on autism rates in China. The WaPo article makes it seem highly likely that kids have developmental issues. The question really is whether autism is measured in China in any reliable way.
Other researchers claim autism is an emotional evolution.
I’m disinclined to trust our contemporary society with deciding whether autism is good or bad.
A difficult scenario for parents, perhaps, but I feel that’s better handled by society pulling its head out of its ass and providing a system that supports such situations.
It's not like autism is a bacteria or a virus. It's a syndrome. Syndromes are just a grouping of a bunch of symptoms, in the case of autism, a bunch of disorders (things that aren't normal.)
The difference between (vi) a nutrient-depleted diet and (vii) nutritional deficiencies is supplementation, non-dietary factors affecting absorption, or something else?
There aren't good candidates for highly non-linear processes that can accumulate but take decades to hit some threshold. Biological systems are full of homeostatic mechanisms that prevent such slow accumulation and if and when they break they do so suddenly, so virtually all the other candidates don't fit the profile because you expect incidence to be distributed evenly as a function of age or occurring early (e.g. embryonic lethal).
I recommend commenters don't rise to the bait of the headling ("the key" is stupid) and respond to the précis instead: "Some researchers suspect these bacterial ancestors living within our cells may contribute to a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders."
Even the précis with an accented e is flawed. This is still akin to saying the ALU in the computer CPUs is the key to solving all our cybersecurity issues, like in a uselessly pedagogical way it might be true but it’s mostly bs. The fact of the matter is our biological systems and signaling pathways evolved with no particular plan in place, so of course various components inside a cell play important roles that might not sound intuitive to anyone. The mitochondria are very much a part of our cell notwithstanding having their own dna, how many trillions of generations do you need before you stop pointing out that this family member was adopted or something ?
I’m not saying that these pathways should not be studied, but it’s very annoying that scientists resort to such disingenuous messaging not just to the public but also to grant review committees. My favorite other outrageous (important, but still outrageous) strictly true but kinda bs statements include:
1. We are more bacteria than ourselves because we have more bacterial cells (our cells are 1000x larger so no shit)
2. Using only 10% of your brain
3. Your immune system is responsible for X
4. Your gut micro biome is responsible for X
(Though 3 and 4 have exceptions like when the autism researchers finally conceded that maybe the parents were not bsing after all and there’s a gut immune connection).
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics like ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin are well documented to damage mitochondria, both function and their DNA. "Brain fog" is a commonly reported side effect from people who are permanently affected by fluoroquinolones. These drugs:
- Delete backup mtDNA
- Cause oxidative damage to mitochondria, impairing their function
- Impair mitochondrial replication
It makes because fluoroquinolones are designed to block bacterial DNA replication by plugging up the enzyme that glues DNA back together after it's separated during cell division. mtDNA replication is very similar to bacterial replication. They damage eukaryotic cells too, likely through a different mechanism.
Factual datapoint: my grandmother was on Cipro intermittently for years (in Illinois) and was lucid as could be all the way to 104, quite amusing too with so many decades of observation.
That's dose length is awful to hear, I hope she didn't suffer from any other major side effects of fluoroquinolones, like neuropathy, tremors or twitching, tendon ruptures, or retinal detachment. It's also unclear why some people have no obvious effects, while others get permanent side effects.
I've had MS and fully recovered with a carnivore diet (started with "paleo", similar to Whals protocol). I've come to believe it's all about gut permeability. There's a clinic in Hungary practicing this with various illnesses, calling it a "paleolithic ketogenic" diet (very high fat, low food volume, again for fast gut healing).
I'm fully convinced that I would have been crippled by now if not for the dietary changes.
I mention this often in online discussions and usually get a lot of pushback. It's very strange to me how people can doubt that diet plays a MAJOR role in health.
I understand the skepticism, but I urge you to look into the people running the clinic, they are honest and credible people, and the results are real. They also recount that they have trouble with people finding such a simple solution in-credible.
They offer a service that includes their supervision... The diet itself isn't proprietary, and given their results I don't mind they charge a decent amount. But, again, the diet is basically: get almost all of your calories from animal fat (four-legged animals, because of the particular fatty acid profile), eat enough protein but not in excess, and eat organ meats (liver, brain, etc.) once a week.
I don't know how you make your judgments but if you look at any intervention by Zsófia Clemens she will strike you as an obviously decent person, these people are not charlatans.
Also, this animal-based ketogenic approach is not unique to them, the "zerocarb" / "carnivore" community is also full of testimonials of people reversing various conditions, especially autoimmune disease. This high-fat approach tends to attract people who are in more difficult / urgent situations, such as late-stage, inoperable cancers.
If you're interested in a case of a person treating brain cancer successfully with a similar diet, look up Andrew Scarborough, he's presently a cancer researcher iirc, but he has been using such a diet for years to successfully put a rare inoperable brain cancer into remission.
I've skimmed your comment history and I think we could have some productive conversations outside of HN, if you want you can send me your preferred way to contact you to: hnmsketohun@protonmail.com
If the contribution was significant, wouldn't we have seen folk tales about "if your mum goes mad, you'll go mad too!". Yet, as far as I know, no such tale exists.
I remember playing the Squaresoft RPG Parasite Eve and enjoying it despite how silly the mitochondria-oriented premise seemed. It would be amusing if it turns out that mitochondria are indeed hugely powerful in determining human outcomes.
Can't wait to become a karate angel.
The game (and the Japanese novel of the same name it was based on) mostly went by pseudoscience but it was interesting. Then the game added a bit more fire and stuff. And then very weird sequels that aren't apropos to this discussion.
Er, anyway. Imagine the publicity if it turns out to retroactively have some scientific basis though. Need to check if the author is still alive nowadays.
the 97 movie version of the novel 'Parasite Eve' had tons of fire, too. Pyrokinesis was a major thing in the movie (and in the game); maybe the game wanted to portray a similar visual continuity to the movie?
The New York setting of the game was a lot more interesting than the back-woods Japan 'BioLab' style setting of the movie.
I think it was less pyrokinesis and more "ordering the mitochondria on everyone nearby to overload and cause spontaneous combustion". The intro is a whole theater's worth of people combusting when the mitochondria on the antagonist "awaken" in presence of the protagonist.
It's based on the book (and referenced by the scientist character, Maeda, as "the case in Japan") but it's a lot more actiony and flashy with all sorts of mutated animals and orange goo.
I have struggled my entire life with various disorders. ADHD, many symptoms of autism, depression, extreme loss of energy and lethargy. For a long time I thought that I had chronic fatigue syndrome after I grew very sick from a viral infection.
Everything everyone is saying here resounds very strongly with a mitochondrial energy problem.
Diet helps me a lot. I have tried many diet approaches, recently a high protein diet has really been working well. I dont know what is wrong with me, but something isnt right.
At this point, I would be starting every morning by consuming about four dozen foods, beverages, and vitamins that will allegedly make me a perfectly healthy human.
Not to mention most of them contradict each other. I have completely given up on trying to figure out what is healthy beyond trying to get fruit, vegetables, and not too much fat in my food.
Anything beyond that seems to devolve into a never ending pile of research and sudo research.
This isn’t even new, the idea that the bioenergetic functions of neurons play a central role in pathological disorder is a one of many different popularized theories. This place discovers the basics day in and day out, lol.
It looks like a lot of people in this thread experienced the effects of mitochondrial dysfunction by themselves.
Here is my 2 cents based on some experience with the topic. Autoimmune manifestations may be just a normal reaction of the organism to dysfunctional cells on their way to apoptosis. Apoptosis occurs when the percentage of broken mitochondria reaches a certain threshold. So you get the inflammation. It may look like the organism attacks its own tissues by mistake - but actually there is a reason.
When the inflammation kicks in, it also affects surrounding healthy cells adding insult to the damage. You get some kind of progressing encephalopathy that eventually leads to neurodegenerative disorders.
A plausible treatment for such condition: inhibit inflammation while trying to restore the normal mitochondrial function.
A gentle way to inhibit the inflammation is to use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Acetylsalicylic Acid (Aspirin).
Restoring normal mitochondrial function is considered impossible if you have an inherited mutation in mitochondrial DNA (1 in 50000 of population). However this is a pretty rare condition while the most of mitochondrial manifestations (1 in 5000 of population) are acquired from environmental factors such as poisons, drugs, infections, nutritional imbalances.
The treatment for such an acquired mitochondrial dysfunction is two-fold: 1) eliminate the initial vector (poison, infection etc. 2) reverse the damage that occurred in mitochondria.
Infections, drugs and poisons are self-explanatory. The nutritional deficit is more intricate. But in case of mitochondria, it is basically covered by the Thiamine (B1 vitamin). The only gotcha is that you won't feel the effect with supportive B1 doses like the usual 2 mg per day. You would need therapeutic doses and a more bioavailable form for that to work, like 300 mg of Benfotiamine per day.
Now once that is covered, you would just stop the progression of mitochondrial dysfunction. But that may be not enough if it went too far. You might still have the apoptosis, the associated constant inflammation and the resulting degeneration.
What you can do to rejuvenate mitochondrial function is to use substances like Nicotinamide Riboside (100 mg per day). This is an efficient B3 vitamin precursor without the typical side effects of Niacin. It restores cell respiration by playing the role of an electronic transport in aerobic glycolysis pathway (Glucose + Oxygen -> ATP) which occurs in a healthy mitochondria. Nicotinamide Riboside is the preferred form of B3 because it also plays the role of a mitochondrial growth factor which is a big win in case of mitochondrial deficit.
Now once you combine all these methods, you may be onto something. By modulating the inflammatory response you win the time to restore the mitochondria thus avoiding massive cellular apoptosis.
By gradually restoring the mitochondrial aerobic glycolysis pathway, you are gradually reducing the associated lactic acidosis which also plays a huge negative role in neurological diseases. You break the viscous cycle of anaerobic glycolysis swapping it with a normal, healthy aerobic pathway.
If the damage to the tissues and nervous system is not too substantial, it may be a full recovery given some months of therapy.
B1 was really useful for me but Benfotiamine form not that much. I needed better bioavailable version allithiamine (100 mg per day). Also PQQ was similarly useful.
I don’t have the time or energy to write a full explanation, but my life has been consumed by this topic for the past two years. I became very ill after a stressful life event and it became clear to me that it involved mitochondria and inflammation, even though that was bizarre and inexplicable at first. I have been lost in the metabolic rabbit hole ever since. All I can say is that if you have a disease that is tangential to this issue, endogenous ketones will almost certainly have some kind of effect on your symptoms — for me they are almost a complete cure.
Take it from someone who’s whole life has revolved around this topic for years: this is a huge deal, it’s real. There is a medical revolution in the pipes having to do with metabolism and inflammation. This article isn’t a scam.
There have been all kinds of studies pointing at mitochondrial dysfunction for things like migraine and epilepsy; and that a ketogenic diet can benefit those disorders. In fact, the ketogenic diet was developed specifically to treat epilepsy. It does seem to have some other downsides..
Had you told me a decade ago that stress could physically make you ill, I would have laughed at you. But having been down that road myself, I totally get it. In retrospect, it's weird how dismissive people are of this. Platitudes like "it's all in your head", while technically true, completely miss the point.
I hope something is in the pipes, but I'm skeptical of the timeline.
I have recently seen a sincerely incredible improvement in my migraines since I started taking supplements such as B vitamins, Magnesium and CoQ10 aimed specifically at facilitating mitochondrial function and other adjacent metabolic processes.
I suffer from chronic migraine, but vitamins made no difference. I take magnesium and vitamin D anyway, but have tried adding CoQ10 etc, to no avail.
Sumatriptan works if I'm awake when the migraine is starting. I recently started taking Erenumab, which also seems to be working to some extent (Severity of migraines is reduced).
Severe migraine sufferer.
At peak in bed 20 hours a day lights offs
Almost a former one now.
Those are all key vitamins that I take that have helped immensely.
Would add vit D, e.
Also anti inflammatory diet.
Also eliminating caffeine.
Energy level isn’t where I want it, but getting better.
For me it's lack of sleep triggering migraines. If I go a few of days without enough sleep (going to bed late, being kept awake by kids, jetlag etc) then I often get a migraine.
Maybe there might some extra factor doing the real triggering such as the weather, etc, but I have noticed a clear correlation between lack of sleep and migraine.
Traveling to different continents for business trips often triggered a migraine at the end of the week.
If I'm working too much too late inot the nights for several days then I often get a migraine.
If I sleep poorly and wake up often due to my kids having a period of bad sleep, sickness etc, then I often have a migraine after a few days of this.
Drinking alcohol can also contribute as it makes the sleep less good and efficient.
I'm going to second this saying that I have similar sequela that were massively improved through the ketogenic diet. Also if anyone is going to try the ketogenic diet make sure to consume excess salt, potassium, and magnesium. Additionally it is very difficult to maintain your weight on the keto diet. I was only able to go for 6 months before I lost too much weight.
Yeah I see threads of this sort of argument coming from many different angles. I just ran across this paper[1] via a youtube review[2] which was mainly focused on diet/nutrition and metabolism, but again is looking at mitochondria and possible neurological connections. "The continuum of disrupted metabolic tempo, mitochondrial substrate congestion, and metabolic gridlock toward the development of non-communicable diseases":
The bioenergetic dysregulation could also prime for the emerging of [neurodegenerative disorders] (O’Neill and O’Driscoll 2015; Pugazhenthi, Qin, and Reddy 2017). Hyperglycemia, obesity and hyperglycemia could induce the extracellular amyloid b (Ab) plaques, hyperphosphorylated tau protein, neuronal loss, and cognitive dysfunction, while the Ab plaques might reciprocally induce [insulin resistance]. Together with the inflammation and oxidative stress, the hyperglycemic-generated advanced glycation end products (AGE) are also the critical cause of neurodegeneration (de Nazareth 2017; Pugazhenthi, Qin, and Reddy 2017). There is a decrease in the brian-derived neuro-trophic factors (BDNF) in both MetS and NDDs, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and depression (Motamedi, Karimi, and Jafari 2017). The concurrent mitochondrial dysfunction in obesity, T2D, and [insulin resistance] ultimately causes cognitive dysfunction (Pugazhenthi, Qin, and Reddy 2017). All these interrelated pathophysiologies suggest the common pathophysiologies of NCDs and NDDs. Prolonged bioenergetic dysregulation thus potentially contribute to cognitive dysfunction.
The tldr is you should go through periods of fed and fasted state metabolically (what they refer to as "pushing" and "pulling" energy into/from your body) - most Americans are constantly in the fed/pushing state which leads to metabolic dysregulation. Under this paradigm switching to a ketogenic diet would help restore metabolic function and lead to more time spent in the pulling state (due to lower insulin).
Ketones are related to autophagy which de-junks our cells. The ketones trigger recycling because they're produced when the body runs out of stored sugar. Junk buildup is considered a hallmark of ageing in the SENS literature
The book, "The Switch" (Clement) is a nice synthesis of recent research on metabolic health. It presents a case that managing metabolic state can mitigate most of the risk of cardio-vascular disease, cancer and mitochondrial damage. Concretely, the book suggests: 1) keep insulin and IGF low through diet, 2) eat a 4:1 or lower ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats (to keep cell walls permeable), 3) do a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) every couple of months to trigger autophagy for cellular cleanup.
You can google FMD - the idea is to induce autophagy. This can be measured during the diet with some efficacy by measuring your glucose-ketone index. In theory, the body has the tools to clean and repair cells, including mitochondrial damage, through autophagy.
In addition to FMD, there are a number of autophagy supplements being tested following the 2016 discovery of the role of the cellular mTor switch. To me, the safety and science behind Spermidine is quite compelling. NAD+ plus precursors are compelling. Rapamycin, Metformin and other solutions that target the mTor pathway are also gaining funding and beginning more experiments.
Ketosis is important to the formula. Juv Labs recently introduced a di-ester exogenous ketone that is intended to promote ketogenesis in the liver, and produce endogenous ketones as well. Eating lower glycemic index foods (ie, down-regulate insulin) for a couple days while taking these supplements is a nice way to experiment with how your body adjusts to a ketogenic state. On the other hand, mono-ester exogenous ketones are more for exercise performance.
Lastly, the Bulletproof podcast is a surprisingly consistent (and understandable) source of biohacking and longevity information and discussion. Check out the recent discussion about NAD+ as an example. Rhonda Patrick's Found My Fitness is also an amazing resource.
I second this. What i recommend: Paleo / Keto diet. Physical exercise. No sun screen in your face / around the eyes - get some direct sunlight for at least 10 minutes per day on your eyes. Throw away your sunglasses. Try it out. If you don't feel better after a while, go back to your old habits if you want.
Exercise is usually great. Is there another type other than physical I don't know about?
> No sun screen in your face / around the eyes
And get wrinkles and skin cancer. Excellent!
> Throw away your sunglasses.
And get cataracts. Good one!
My apologies but these recommendations come across like the side of Dr. Bronner's soap bottle. Entertaining but I'm not sure how useful or scientific they are.
This is the 21st century. There's no one weird trick to being healthy, successful, having a high quality anything.
Biological systems are complex and don't have a single variable which needs optimizing, they have many, need many, and every variable with leverage needs to be thought as a part of a whole.
I could have added more context. In this case, I think the headline is not just bait, it serves as the thesis of the whole article and unless the reader is uncommonly critical of such things, the whole thing serves as an argument for answering "yes" to the posed question. In most cases I do agree that discussing mostly the title results in little value.
I think both can be true. While what you say feels holistic and true philosophically, in day to day, we cannot control for 1000 different variables and some things have more of an outsized effect than others.
For example if someone wrote "Is Exercise the key to a healthy brain", it sure can look click-baity, but in practice it's a tried and tested lever to improve brain health. Sure, you can say "oh there are 10,000 other things that influence brain health and it's a very complex inter-connected system", but you miss the fact that not all of those 10,000 things are equally deserving of your time or even under your influence. In fact, things like exercise or meditation can fall under the "weird trick" category.
If focusing on mitochondria's health falls under that "outsized effect" category is the thesis of the article and remains to be seen if it can be included in the same category as other tried and true influential levers.
You beat me to this thought, but the difference is that exercise and high-level lifestyle changes will include underlying changes in a million biological factors, including mitochondria.
We see this over and over in press releases when new research is focused on one mechanism (e.g. mitochondria). To me "weird tricks" that capture whole body or lifestyle changes are at least worth paying attention to. While "weird tricks" in the name of a single biological mechanism are indeed overblown (but still worth knowing if you're in to that sort of information).
I'd say what lies at top of the food chain of cause and effect is simply coming from "availability bias" i.e. we give more weight to what we know to be true. Yes some things have more downstream effects than others and that's where you get your bang for the buck.
Whether mitochondria is just one mechanism or more of an over-arching one is what research is all about. For example, HRV feels like on obscure metric out of 100s of metrics. But it has been shown to now have hundreds of mental and physical benefits including longevity, that we don't necessarily understand why but it still has risen to the top. Same for intermittent fasting and so on. These are indeed "weird tricks" in a pretty literal sense but they do the job in predictable and often dramatic ways.
It turns out these "weird tricks" are actually just the things our bodies need to operate properly. We evolved moving everyday, being outside, eating nutrient dense foods, sleeping as much as needed, etc. It's crazy to me to think that there are still people who don't think these things could have huge systemic effects that impact the entire aging/disease process.
Every part of your molecular biology is there for a reason. They're all necessary conditions for health. You take out the the mitochondria, the Golgi apparatus, the microtubules, some random protein that regulates membrane permeability, it doesn't work anymore. There isn't a part of your cellular biology which isn't important for a healthy brain. Your cells don't have infotainment systems, and if they did they'd be like the ones in a modern car that also unlock the doors and start the engine.
OK, but "microbiology" doesn't mean what you think it means. (It is the study of microbes, i.e., very small independent life forms.) "Molecular biology" though would fit right in to your comment.
Not just within the body. Life itself is layers upon layers of interconnected systems from a micro to a macro to a global level.
Humans have a very surface level understanding of the our internal systems that make our bodies work, we know next to nothing about most of the ecological and environmental systems we also rely on. Everything from our external environments, to the things that enter our bodies to all the things that live in and on our bodies, all the things play a part in our health and functioning.
Such a headline almost reads like a joke. "Is blood the key to a healthy brain?" would also read as funny. Are neurons? Lungs? DNA? I understand the article is insightful but the tragedy of click bait headlines strikes again.
Yeah you’ll rather blow your brains out than try to understand the totality of feedback loops in our bodies. The thing with biology is that you can always try to nudge one subsystem to fix something, but then there’s the next and the next, ad infinitum.
This is indeed a big assumption. We have been able to create new systems from technology but are humans capable of reverse engineer complex biological systems or emulate them effectively is a complete unknown. For example, there are few groups trying to simulate a single cell for decades, and we are still extremely nascent in our ability to do so.
It is possible that there are many facets of reality that are simply outside the comprehension of human brain. In fact, is is likely that most reality is outside our comprehension.
"We have been able to create new land-based vehicles from technology but whether humans capable of heavier than air flight like birds is a complete unknown.
It's possible that there are many facets of flight that are simply outside of the comprehension of human brain."
You could make this exact same argument for all technology until it's discovered.
Just because it's always worked in the past doesn't mean it will always work in the future. I've actually spent some time thinking about this in the past - a big hidden assumption of science is that everything is knowable, which we know is not strictly true, and I'm not entirely confident that it's even approximately true.
Yes, and you'd be right to do so. Most technology that we can imagine will not exist within our lifetimes. People have been dreaming of flying apparatuses since the dawn of mankind, and we only built one in 1900, probably more than six thousand years since we first imagined the idea.
Slightly off-topic: I remember a couple of years ago how “hydrogen sulphide may have role in cellular aging” morphed into “why sniffing farts is good for you”. It’s really all or nothing with these headlines.
Yet, people love "one trick" wonder -- just go on YouTube and search for "golf swing" or "lose fat", it's so easy you don't even have to leave the house.
It’s possible there are kolmogorov-simple optimizations that are evolutionarily complex, like the supplementation of a non-synthesizable metabolite. We’ve made plenty of discoveries like this in the past, such as with various mineral deficiencies. It seems like we’ve exhausted most of those, but there might be similar optimizations, such as not poisoning ourselves with microplastics or whatever.
Crazy idea: what if we can use mRNA or any other tech to make old blood young again by changing the chemical composition? The rest of the body follows along, it's proven.
